Thursday, June 27, 2013

New York Times columnist and former business writer Joe Nocera has a column about a bipartisan effort in the US Senate to dismantle Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac which together guarantee 77% of the mortgages in America today. Nocera explains that the dual nature of these two entities - they are both publicly traded companies that have a strong govenment proponent - has been part of their problem. He also points out that the new bill does not eliminate government involvement in the mortgage business. Instead, it replaces the quasi-governmental companies with an express government guarantee of loan losses beyond the first 10%. The sponsors of this bill, Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, and Senator Bob Corker, a Republican from Tennessee, contend that government guarantees are essential to the operation of the home mortgage market and it was best to provide that support in a straightforward, transparent way. Nocera, however, raises the awkward question of whether the federal government should be subsidizing home ownership in the first place and suggests that rather than trying to replace Fannie and Freddie, the country first needs a discussion on whether our national policy should promote homeownership by everyone.

Monday, June 24, 2013

Although June is nearly at an end, here's a look back at our volume of electronic recording during the month of May. We recorded from all sources 6137 documents in May; of those, 2392 were recorded electronically. That equals 39% which is just about the percentage we've been hitting each month during 2013. The proportion of major document types recorded electronically remains consistent. There were 667 deeds recorded for the district in May; 193 of them (29%) were recorded electronically. There were 1263 mortgages recorded; 656 of them (52%) were recorded electronically. There were 1450 discharges; 806 of them (56%) were recorded electronically.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

The long talked-about sale of 305 Gorham Street, a portion of the lot where St. Peter's Church formerly stood, by Cooney Development LLC to the Coalition for a Better Acre was recorded today. The former rectory of St. Peter's parish will remain as home to Cooney Insurance and several law offices, but the northerly portion of that parcel which is bounded by Father Ronan Terrace and Gorham, Elm and South Streets, will soon be home to a six-story mulifamily building that will contain 24 residential units. According to a special permit from the Lowell Planning Board, phase two of the development will consist of a second building, this one of 5 stories, with an additional 24 units for a total of 48. The recorded documents give no indication of when construction will start.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Although we don't see many here at Middlesex North, some of the other registries of deeds in Massachusetts report a fairly regular level of recording activity by adherents of the "sovereign citizen" movement. The theory has something to do with the law that caused the US to go off the gold standard back in the 1930s. Adherents contend that by declaring oneself a "sovereign citizen" (or sometimes a "sovereign country") they are no longer responsible for debts that would be payable in US dollars.

The case in point is from Washington state. An accountant who advised and assisted a number of tax payers is seeking Federal tax refunds in the amount of debt they were purported to owe, was sentenced to 5 years in prison and pay $700,000 in restitution. A press release from the Department of Justice about the case is here. The FBI contends that the sovereign citizen movement has been closely affiliated with domestic terrorism and therefore closely monitors such activity.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

The city of Lowell dropped off a big pile of tax takings to be recorded today - 227 in all, 218 on recorded land (document type TAKE) and 9 on registered land (TAX TAKING). They are all for FY2012 real estate taxes and most seem to be in the $2000 to $4000 range.

In past years, these documents were treated mostly as ongoing liens on the property to be settled the next time the premises was sold or refinanced. Last year, however, the city bundled these tax takings up and auctioned them off. Presumably the same thing will happen again this summer so anyone whose name appears on one of these documents would be wise to contact the city tax collector and try to bring some resolution to the proceedings sooner rather than later.

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